[Baylor]

  He started to stir, then froze.

  ‘I don’t recognize this bed.’

  Without opening his eyes, he did his best to even out his breath. Listening to everything he could and remaining still was his best chance.

  ‘The room is occupied; I can hear breathing. Low numbers. Smallish space. Fabric is not low quality. No restraints.’

  In short…. He had no idea what was happening.

  A prison cell might see him without restraints and a single guard, but the bed would be of a worse quality. The War-beast might be the source of the breathing, in which case it didn’t matter where he had been put.

  Everywhere was a prison if you couldn’t hope to escape.

  But he didn’t see the War-beast being that obvious. He might have been out longer than he knew and his hearing had peaked, but it didn’t sound like whoever was here was attempting to be quiet. That didn’t even include the cost and impractical nature of using a massive War-beast as a prison guard.

  ‘No, it’s much more likely that I have a cell mate or a regular guard. The question is, where am I being guarded?’

  He took a big inhale in an attempt to gather a scent. Anything to give him a clue before he alerted everyone nearby that he was awake. What he managed to pick out was strangely nostalgic. Almost like he recognized it. It took a moment to click in his brain.

  ‘Of course they took her as well. She had already been in the ship when he had seen…. that.’

  He shuddered involuntarily at the memory. A shadowy nightmare looming from the darkness. The movement also unfortunately seemed to attract attention. Best to play it safe.

  “Christy, is that you? Are we alone? Cameras?”

  He tried to stay as quiet as possible but still be heard by the woman. He still wasn’t sure how far away she was. They might be in a small alcove in a larger room after all.

  “If you’re awake, stop pretending. It won’t change anything.”

  He cursed inwardly at not teaching her about plotting an escape. Giving away a valuable advantage like that was difficult to swallow. Still, since she had ruined his efforts to appear unconscious, he decided to get a visual map as well.

  Covertly looking around, they were indeed in a smaller room. It seemed to be a bunk room. A rather normal one at that, meant for two people. Likely for a junior officer or some other mid ranked personnel. No reason to let the fresh recruits have this much space for themselves and too small for the higher ups. He didn’t spot any cameras on his initial sweep, but that didn’t mean anything.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  There did seem to be an access panel near the door. Surprising, but if this room wasn’t meant to be used as a brig than normal use needed a panel. So they likely got stuffed somewhere that would keep them contained but wasn’t secure.

  He could work with that.

  So long as the War-beast wasn’t right outside at least.

  ‘Best to stay put and get as much information as possible. They have to feed us eventually, best chance to escape is after that.’

  “When they bring the rations, ask for something obscure so we have a chance to run. Don’t mention me. How long until they show up?”

  As he was watching the door, all he got from Christys direction was a sigh.

  “Stop being a fool and get up. We aren’t at the station anymore.”

  That was a significant blow to his plan but wasn’t an outright deathblow. They would need to get to the navigation room and determine if a shuttle could make the journey to whatever was closest, which made things infinitely more complicated, but it was still possible.

  ‘So long as she doesn’t keep blowing our cover.’

  “I guarantee that whatever your thinking isn’t going to happen. I know you too well to think you gave up with just that.”

  He expelled the breath he had taken to admonish her, the rebuke unexpected. It seemed like she wasn’t going to get it with just that. He sat up in the hopes of teaching her the very important parts of escaping before she gave anything else away.

  “Just shut up and listen. Honestly, you’re the reason I have to explain all this anyways. You and your ‘fight everything’ mindset.”

  The words once again got stuck as he was assaulted from the unexpected angle.

  “First of all, we aren’t prisoners, so stop acting like a fool. If you screw up all my hard work because you won’t listen, I will be very cross with you.”

  That… was news? He didn’t even really know how to parse that revelation.

  “You’re lucky that female thought your little outbursts were silly kid’s games. If you had managed to cause any actual damage we might be in an actual prison, not whatever fantasy brig your mind had conjured up. I’m sure station security would have bent over backwards to get on their good side.”

  As he struggled to come to terms with the fact his best effort had been treated like a childish outburst, the rest of that statement started to sink in.

  “Well, they did bend over backwards, I guess. I just happened to manage to maneuver us to being on the good side, rather than being accused of something stupid.”

  That sharp look she shot at him didn’t help his stumbling thoughts.

  “That girl was rich. Didn’t lie either. She had a bunch of materials the station needed for construction and expansion, as well as several volatiles like water ice. The station didn’t even have enough liquid credits to buy it all, they hadn’t expected a large trade that didn’t already have a contract like that. I had to negotiate for a goods exchange in addition to the available credits.

  “The girl wanted a resupply, so the station gave up almost five years of rations and other non-food items, like cleaning and maintenance supplies. The docking fee was even waived in exchange for the taxes being paid upfront.”

  He shook his head. He always liked to listen to her talk, but she was acting like this was a normal ship. She didn’t understand the significance of the two nightmares on board.

  “Hush. I know you did a lot and I am proud of you for keeping calm, but we can’t stay. We need to escape. Did you see a shuttle bay or escape pod? Anything we can use to get back to a station?”

  He knew he made a mistake when he saw the fire flare up in her eyes.

  That and the punch to his shoulder.

  “If you had let me finish you big thug, you would already know I got us a shuttle!”